By March 11th, the SEC will either approve or reject the Winklevoss Bitcoin ETF. Since the IRS classifies Bitcoin as a commodity, rather than a currency, the fund manager would have to purchase bitcoins as investor money poured into their ETF, driving up its price. While analysts don’t expect the ETF to have a long-term impact on bitcoin’s price, it would still help remove mainstream stigma around cryptocurrencies.

While fintech entrepreneurs in most cities are betting against the big banks, their counterparts in Singapore are trying to strengthen them with fintech collaboration. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced a $158 Million investment in fintech, and most of the money will go to “enabler” fintechs, rather than disrupters.

Another round of 2017 predictions for the fintech industry. As financial institutions’ stocks have rallied 20% since November, they will use 2017 to leverage this market cap to acquire more startups. IPO candidates: Stripe, SoFi, Credit Karma? Banks will start creating AI labs as it becomes the new buzzword, but no real use cases will emerge until years later.